Allegations Link U.S. Companies to Brazilian Sex Tourism

[Derechos]

The Justice Department has been conducting a criminal investigation of sports fishing expeditions in the Amazon that may have been used as covers for Americans to have sex with underage girls, according to newly filed court papers.

The investigation and two related actions — a parallel criminal inquiry in Brazil and an unusual lawsuit filed in federal court in Georgia — could provide a rare look at the business operations of the multibillion-dollar international sex tour industry, which has increasingly focused on Brazil.

“Brazil is taking over from Thailand as a premier sex tourism vacation” spot, said Kristen Berg, an official of Equality Now, an advocacy organization in New York that helped bring the lawsuit in Georgia.

That lawsuit was filed last month on behalf of four Brazilian women who claim that they were coerced as minors to serve as prostitutes for Americans on Amazon fishing expeditions operated by an Atlanta-area businessman. One of the women said that she was 12 years old at the time.

Ms. Berg said the lawsuit was the first time that a federal law, the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, had been used to seek damages from someone accused of operating sex tours.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/09/business/allegations-link-us-companies-to-brazilian-sex-tourism.html?ref=us

[bemildred]

1. What is the thing with underage girls anyway, I mean how pathetic.

You gotta pay all that money and break all those laws just to screw a woman that is unthreatening?
:puke:

[naaman fletcher]

2. I think

It's gotta be some hard-wired disorder. Nothing else makes sense to me.

[bemildred]

3. Well, I admit it's ubiquitous, children having sex is nothing new,

but I think this sort of thing goes way beyond that.

Not that you don't have a point, men certainly can be single minded in pursuit of sex (I'm in a position to know), but I think most of it is cultural, I was not born with strange ideas about women, I was taught them by all around me.

[joshcryer]

4. I used to talk to a guy in Sao Paulo online...

...he used to brag about being able to get boys of any age to do perverted stuff on the cheap. I didn't know whether to believe him or not (this is the internet after all), but just the idea was sickening. This guy was an ultra fascist in every way, I only listened to his ranting because it was fascinating that such a person could exist (to me, naive, at 23-24 years old). I think there's an element of psychosis and power that is in play. These people travel from foreign countries where their wealth is vastly superior, they find highly desperate individuals and exploit them, justifying it by the idea that these people are "better off" doing twisted things for money.

Here's a BBC article about this I found: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-10764371

And another: http://brazilglobal.net/2011/01/26/sex-tourism-in-brazil/

I'm not sure there's an innate attraction to the individuals that they're targeting, to be honest. It's more of a power fetish in my mind, these people thrive on the power dynamic, at least, that's how I feel going with my conversations with that guy. Stopped talking to him because it was toxic, I couldn't believe a human existed who thought like him, even if he was making up his garbage.

:puke:

[bemildred]

6. Yeah, definitely about power.

It's like a cliche that it gets passed from generation to generation, abused becoming abusers. But not always ...

[joshcryer]

5. BBC had a good documentary about this enforcement leg of the Justice Department:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yb5bx">The Paedophile Hunters
Film following the agents of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as they track down, arrest and extradite American paedophile sex tourists. In Cambodia, ex-cop Chris Materelli works alongside former Khmer Rouge boy soldier Vansak Suos, investigating Americans who have abused children as young as four, who are sometimes sold by their own parents. Although these agents work under the radar, as in extraordinary rendition, so far eighty-five offenders have been brought back to America to face justice in American courts.

The http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PROTECT_Act_of_2003">Protect Act enabled the US to go after offenders overseas.